Our mission is to foster greater opportunities for vulnerable children to play, learn, and develop, while preserving local culture.
Play provides the invisible infrastructure of childhood. It promotes social development, imagination, healthy bodies and self-esteem. CPI promotes children’s play because it is critical to their social, physical, and psychological development. Where children are deprived of play, they suffer; when play is restored, they grow. Our work is dedicated to play in all its forms from organized games to dancing. We encourage play across every culture, respecting the commonalities and differences.
Play is essential to a child’s development. CPI works to promote greater opportunities for play and access to free education where it has been curtailed — for example, because of war, famine, or natural disaster. We follow Piaget’s principle that “Play is the work of childhood,” where capacities for resilience, integrity, and creativity are molded through play. We work with local teams, schools, community leaders and NGOs, fostering sustainable initiatives for play and education that reflect and conserve their cultures.
CPI aims to offer its program to children around the world on a permanent basis. We hope to unite with organizations, companies and individuals who share our dedication to childhood play and development, regardless of their geographical location.
We follow Piaget’s principle that “Play is the work of childhood,” where capacities for resilience, integrity, and creativity are molded through play.
Dr. Steven Watson is an historian interested in the dynamics of twentieth century cultural figures of the American avant-garde. After studying English at Stanford University and psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he received his Ph.D. in 1976 and worked for nineteen years as the staff psychologist of a community mental health clinic.
During his tenure as a psychologist, he branched out into journalism and independent publishing, and wrote six books on the American avant-garde (Random House, Pantheon, Abbeville). Watson has organized two exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, published a collaborative artists’ portfolio (Artifacts at the End of a Decade) and directed Prepare for Saints, a documentary film broadcast on PBS. He was a featured presenter of Artifacts at a meeting in Paris, at the Center Pompidou. www.steven-watson.com
Sarwar is a film-maker and CEO of Eckova Productions (U.S.A. and Pakistan). He filmed and co-produced many humanitarian films in Pakistan, including about the Special Olympics/Pakistan. He led Film-making for Social Change in 2009 and 2010 in Pakistan for training young film-makers in documentary film production. He is a founding member of Special Olympics/Pakistan, and organized and conducted several regional and national Games as well as taken two delegations of Special Athletes to participate in international games in Minneapolis and New Haven.
John Watson holds an MBA from Stanford. He was Vice President and General Manager of General Foods, and a senior marketing executive at several major corporations. His experience in the non-profit sector is extensive, and ranges across large organizations that help the disabled to regional economic groups and housing collaboratives. He is also active in church and interfaith outreach groups.
Sandra Sherman, who holds a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, was formerly a Senior Attorney in the U.S. government and a professor of English literature. She has published four books on 18th century literature and culture, including major studies of the financial revolution and poor relief. She is also co-author of several books on neuroscience, including Origins of Human Socialization and The Altruistic Brain, and on psychiatry (e.g., Through a Screen Darkly: Psychiatric Reflections During the Pandemic and Towards Happiness — A Psychoanalytic Approach to Finding Your Way). She is an authority on early culinary texts and the author of Invention of the Modern Cookbook.
Caroline Miller is a veteran journalist, and since 2010 has been editorial director of childmind.org, a website with extensive resources on children’s mental health and learning disorders. She also teaches graduate seminars in journalism at New York University and, in national election years, an undergraduate seminar on journalism and politics at Columbia University. She was Editor-in-Chief of New York magazine from 1997-2004, and held the same position at Seventeen and Lear’s. At Variety, she was Executive Editor.
Linda Saetre is a multilingual, senior-level tech and media executive, experienced in project management. She has built partnerships and longstanding relationships among teams and investors, and with government entities, and transitioned from film and TV production to social entrepreneurship. She also advised a non-profit founded by Olympians to lobby the U.S. Congress.
Nadeem is currently Head of Film & Media at Eckova Productions, Karachi, and of the Film & Media Program at Karachi Film School. He has produced several documentaries, music videos, and Public Service Announcements on issues ranging from the environment to poverty and cultural conservation. Additionally, he had worked worldwide on technology -, media -, and communications -related projects, funded by such organizations as the UN, USAID, the Asia Foundation, and the Asian Development Bank.
Nadeem is currently Head of Film & Media at Eckova Productions, Karachi, and of the Film & Media Program at Karachi Film School. He has produced several documentaries, music videos, and Public Service Announcements on issues ranging from the environment to poverty and cultural conservation. Additionally, he had worked worldwide on technology -, media -, and communications -related projects, funded by such organizations as the UN, USAID, the Asia Foundation, and the Asian Development Bank.
Denise Davies is a filmmaker, writer, educator, and consultant working with non-profits, artists and small business on film, internet, social media and media strategies.
She has developed web projects and manages social media for Arts Health Antigonish, HARP Publishers, Anne Simpson, Antigonish Heritage Museum, and Spellbound by Nature.
Denise is CEO of Eckova Film and Media Production in Canada. She has lived and worked internationally, including in Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, and the USA, and has participated in several CPI projects.
Mara Krechevsky is a senior researcher at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she has been involved in educational research for over 30 years. She is an expert in early childhood education and has focused much of her work on documenting and supporting young children’s learning and development in a variety of settings.
Krechevsky has co-authored several influential books and articles, including “Visible Learners: Promoting Reggio-Inspired Approaches in All Schools” and “Making Learning Visible: Children as Individual and Group Learners.” Her work emphasizes the importance of creating environments that support collaborative learning and making children’s thinking visible to educators and families.
She has collaborated with educators around the world to develop innovative approaches to teaching and learning that respect and build on children’s natural curiosity and capabilities. Krechevsky’s research and writing have had a significant impact on the field of early childhood education, promoting practices that honor children’s voices and encourage their active participation in their learning.
Caroline Beauregard is a professor of art therapy at the University of Québec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue-UQAT and a researcher at the Institut Universitaire Sherpa and at ERIFARDA in Canada. At the intersection of art therapy and education, her work focuses on the impact of school-based creative expression workshops on immigrant and refugee children’s development, emotional well-being, social connectedness and creativity, taking on a perspective of empowerment and agency. She specializes in creative expression programs in schools with immigrants and refugees, construction and expression of identity, psychosocial intervention through art in schools, and the psychological impact of armed conflict and trauma. She holds numerous degrees, including a Ph.D. from the University of Montreal. Link to bio.
Nadeem is currently Head of Film & Media at Eckova Productions, Karachi, and of the Film & Media Program at Karachi Film School. He has produced several documentaries, music videos, and Public Service Announcements on issues ranging from the environment to poverty and cultural conservation. Additionally, he had worked worldwide on technology -, media -, and communications -related projects, funded by such organizations as the UN, USAID, the Asia Foundation, and the Asian Development Bank.
Dr. Jean-Elie Gilles makes his Haitian hometown in Jacmel, part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. After a prestigious teaching internship in France, he settled in the U.S. and pursued a Doctorate in Francophone Literature. He has been a lecturer in Creole and Francophone Studies at the University of Florida, and has taught French and Haitian Literature at Pace University, New York, and Kean University in New Jersey. While living in Haiti, he was a professor of literature at several universities, and a cultural organizer of the Alliance Française de Jacmel. He has published “Jacmel, its Contribution to the History of Haiti, Tomes I, II and III;” as well as several novels, short stories, and essays.534 W. 112 Street,
P.O.Box 250765
New York, NY 10025
CPI is a nonprofit tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S, Internal Revenue Code.
Registered Charity: EIN 85-0677829
Link to CPI’s Annual Report 2024 here
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